


the damned prince of gotham

by TeamSwipsy



Series: DC Drabbles/Character Studies [2]
Category: DC Extended Universe, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Character Study, mentions of past death, mentions of past trauma, zombie boy and how he's dealing with things
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22839772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamSwipsy/pseuds/TeamSwipsy
Summary: a series of looks into jason's character
Series: DC Drabbles/Character Studies [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672444
Kudos: 9





	1. the cold

**Author's Note:**

> drabbly character studies from tumblr on jason todd! take it with a grain of salt and canon

Jason Todd can’t stand the cold.

Given that he makes his home in Gotham, where it’s nearly always damp and cold, it’s hard to avoid. He dresses in layers, keeps the collar on his jacket turned up, sews thermal threads into his uniforms. He keeps hand warmers stashed everywhere. His coffee maker is set on a timer so that there will always be a hot drink when he comes home. His electric kettle has been revamped by Tim to be the fastest in the world at heating up.

He can’t stand the cold. Starting in September sometimes, he practically lives only in sweaters and thermal shirts, ones that are designed to withstand Siberian temperatures. Gloves are always on hand, scarves and hats ready to go at a moment’s notice. He installs heaters in his helmet.

He can’t stand the cold. As the years have gone, it’s become less drastic, less of an extreme reaction. But there are still times when the temperature will drop faster than his apartment’s heater can keep up and he wakes up gasping for breath, fingers clawing their way through the thin air.

He can’t stand the cold. The manor is warmer than his downtown apartment, and he knows this, but he still won’t go there. It’s gotten better as the years have gone on, but when his fingers get too cold in late January, he finds himself wondering if it’ll happen again. If he was ever fully back in the first place.

Jason Todd can’t stand the cold. But it gets easier to warm back up every time he has to.


	2. air

Air.

He was breathing air.

It was cold, it was wet, there were chunks of dirt falling into his gaping and gasping mouth, but he was breathing real, fresh air.

Grunting and screaming and crying, Jason dug until his second shoulder could bend, until his other elbow could slide up along the first, until both of his hands were shoveling dirt away from his face as fast as he could to bring him to the surface. Piles and piles of dirt and mud were moved, each with an accompanying cry. 

Finally, he burst through the final layer, head coming up and out of the dirt like a whale breaching for the first time in hours, like a newborn coming into the world and taking its first breath. He drug himself out of that hole, laying half in and half out as his chest heaved to gather as much of the air as he could into his lungs.

He was breathing.

The pattering on his back grew more insistent, and he realized, slowly, that it was raining. He was laying on top of mud, caked in it, covered in wet dirt and blood and grass and chips of wood. But he was breathing. He closed his eyes, taking in the feeling after the six feet of earth that felt like an eternity. 

Jason Todd was breathing. He was alive.

Years later, it’s still the first thing that grounds him.


	3. layers

Once, late at night on a patrol, Jason responded to a comment about having a rough exterior that left Tim laughing, pointing at him and saying, “Like Shrek! Ogres have layers!” Nothing more was said that night except Tim being pushed into a dumpster, but it made sense, Jason supposed.

He did have layers. Jason Todd had compartmentalized everything in his life. It made the most sense, since technically he was still legally dead.

His outermost layer, his default mode to go in was Snarky Playboy. After all, he did learn from the best, and billionaire Bruce Wayne was all about keeping up appearances. Jason projected an air of cool confidence to everyone he met, someone always above it all and too good for this. He added an extra layer of threat when dealing with the criminals, a scent of danger, just to remind them who was really in charge.

To his friends, they were allowed to see the passion that lied underneath the anger. They could see how much he wanted to change things, how much he wanted to make a difference, but also how he was willing to do whatever it took to achieve that goal. They saw that he fumbled sometimes, but they knew he could always pick himself back up.

Only Roy, or sometimes his brothers if he was broken enough, maybe Barbara or Artemis or Bizarro on a good night, saw just how much pain he was still in. How despite the years of working towards healing and moving on, he was still sure that he had never really been as loved as he thought he was. How he was the second best child, how he was never enough, how he wasn’t worth the avenging his death called for. 

How he had failed.

Even so, they also saw the same carefree Jason Todd that had been there before his death. He was a smart child, excited about learning, excited about life. He joked often, jumped around to show off his skills whenever he learned them, rushed headfirst into proving what he could do and expanding his knowledge. His family saw the old Jason in quiet moments. They’d catch him with his guard down, a soft smile on his face, watching his brothers and joking around with them in a way he didn’t do often anymore. Only they could bring out that in him.

No one saw the fear. Even Jason wouldn’t acknowledge the fear. There was no room for fear in his plan.


	4. crowbar

To most people, the crowbar is treated as a joke. Jason Todd laughs it off, makes clown jokes with the rest of them, uses them to make a point in certain fights. 

There’s a reason he keeps them around.

(Barbara gets it. Barbara gets him, understands it. She’s been there. Not quite as far, but hers was worse in a different kind of way. She lived.)

Jason will laugh. Jason will toss a crowbar around for fun. Jason jokes that it couldn’t have been a lead pipe, or a candlestick? But he keeps them around, keeps them there as a reminder, makes himself look at the one in his apartment every time he leaves.

Jason Todd keeps a crowbar as a reminder that it will never happen again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> teamswipsy on tumblr :)

**Author's Note:**

> find us on tumblr at teamswipsy!!


End file.
